Colorado College Athletics

An Open Letter to the Colorado College Community
from Dick Celeste (President), Prof. Ralph Bertrand (Faculty Athletic Representative), and Ken Ralph (Director of Athletics)

Dear Members of the Colorado College Community,

We write to you today to convey some upcoming changes to the Colorado College athletic program. These changes reflect a decision to rethink how we allocate resources within our athletic department during this period of budgetary constraints.

Effective at the end of Block 8, the college will discontinue the varsity sports of football, softball, and water polo. With our current resources, we are unable to support 20 varsity programs at an appropriate level. While these steps may seem drastic (and even incompatible with the aspirations of an elite liberal arts college), they are necessary given our current financial standing. This is especially difficult considering the importance of football in the history of athletic competition at Colorado College.

The college’s decision is the culmination of hundreds of hours of research and evaluation by members of the athletic department, athletic board (including four faculty members), students, senior staff, and the Board of Trustees. It was not made in haste. It is intended to allow the athletic department to live within the available budget while providing the necessary resources to ensure that the remaining 17 programs are strong.

This move affects 76 students on campus, 54 men and 22 women. The choice of these three sports came down to competitive success, conference affiliation, available facilities, fundraising success (or endowment earnings), roster size, and recruiting success. It was also critical to follow all applicable federal regulations. This change actually will bring CC more closely into compliance with Title IX Gender Equity legislation, an important aspect of any decision involving athletic programs.

This step will be very upsetting for the young men and women affected, and they will need your support. We hope many will choose to continue their academic careers at Colorado College. We recognize, however, that some students may decide to transfer, and we pledge our full support in their efforts to select a new academic and athletic opportunity.

For the past year, the athletic department has been involved in a wide-ranging cost- cutting exercise. The department has reduced contests, reduced travel squad sizes, increased the number of students and staff per room on the road, and reorganized the athletic training room for additional savings. In fact, the department submitted over three pages of cost-saving measures currently in place, demonstrating their full participation in our campus-wide efforts to reduce the budget. It is a testament to the talent and dedication of our student-athletes that they have achieved such success with limited resources.

It is important to note that our athletic program is the only Division III program in the Mountain Time Zone. In the 2008-09 academic year we will have purchased over 1,700 plane tickets and over 1,425 hotel nights in order for our teams to complete their schedules. In addition, the athletic department will raise over $2.1 million in revenue to fund their own operations. 

We must be conscious of how these changes may affect some aspects of campus life. Diversity and gender balance may be altered. We know that the discontinuation of any program will have an impact on the campus (and on external constituencies), and we are doing our best to anticipate issues that may arise. We plan to work together to mitigate the negative aspects of this action.

We wish there were another way to manage the budget situation in athletics without resorting to eliminating opportunities for our students. It is clear from the research and debate on this topic that we are making the right decision, albeit a difficult one. Please note that there will be no reductions in our intramural or club sports budgets. With over 75% of our students participating in these two programs, it is important to maintain, or even improve, service in these areas.

Colorado College is not the only school reducing the number of varsity offerings. In recent weeks schools including Johns Hopkins, Pepperdine, Quinnipiac, Wagner, Principia, Blackburn, and Agnes Scott have all announced cuts.  This problem has also hit at the state school level: Western Washington, The University of Vermont, and Northern Iowa, among others, have announced significant cuts to their athletics departments.  It is also clear from speaking with our colleagues at other schools that they are likewise considering reductions in programs.

Our hope is that one day these programs can be restored to the sports landscape at Colorado College.  We will reevaluate this decision periodically, and if an improved economy and community support provide us with the resources necessary to sustain these sports at competitive levels, we will consider reinstatement.

If you have additional questions, please contact one of us. Thank you for understanding that we are in a period in which difficult, and sometimes unpopular, decisions must be made for the overall health of the college.